A major 'Westworld' finale reveal could involve Dolores' murderous past

Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Westworld" including speculation of upcoming events.

"Westworld" has been building towards several major reveals this season, and one of the biggest mysteries remaining has to do with Dr. Ford's new narrative. We know Ford has ordered a massive amount of construction and new development of characters, including a host named Wyatt.

Wyatt is the villain in Ford's new story, but we've only ever seen him through flashbacks Teddy has to a massacre in a town. But what if Wyatt isn't a new character at all? What if Wyatt is actually another name for Dolores?

The new narrative

Wyatt was first introduced in episode three, when Ford sat Teddy down and uploaded the new storyline into his programming. Ford asked Teddy if he'd like a role in the new narrative, calling it "a fiction which like all great stories is rooted in truth."

Perhaps that "truth" is Arnold and Dolores' history?

Ford may be retelling Arnold's death using the new narrative.
HBO

"It starts in a time of war, a world in flames," Ford said. "With a villain called Wyatt."

The Wyatt story was told from Teddy's point of view then. "Yeah, 'course I remember Wyatt. You look upon the face of true evil, you ain't liable to forget," Teddy said. "He claimed he could hear the voice of God. It started down near Escalante. Army was sent to put down the natives. Bad business. Wyatt was a sergeant, went missing while out on some maneuvers and came back a few weeks later with some pretty strange ideas."

Teddy has a longer history with the park than we realized.
HBO

Here, in episode three, this narrative already had parallels to the hosts and the story of Arnold. In that very same episode Ford told Bernard the story of Arnold for the first time, including his plans to use the "Bicameral Mind" theory as a way of bootstrapping consciousness.

The Bicameral Mind is the idea that primitive man first believed their thoughts were the voices of the gods — which is exactly what Wyatt claims to hear.

This is how Wyatt is shown in flashbacks.
HBO

Throughout the season, Teddy and other hosts repeat the story of Wyatt to other guests. "The man in question gunned down an entire settlement — men women and children," a sheriff said later in episode three. "Word is [Teddy] Flood here is the only man to ever come up against him and live to tell the tale."

Each time we get a little more information about Wyatt, more parallels are drawn to Dolores.

Dolores' story matches with Wyatt's

By the end of episode nine, we know a lot more about Dolores and Arnold's fraught history. The town with the white church is seen in multiple flashbacks, and it looks like a testing ground of some kind. This is likely the area of the park where Ford and Arnold would experiment with the hosts before Westworld was open to the public.

Angela was one of the original hosts built 35 years ago.
HBO

Scenes like the one above have been shown from Dolores' point of view — you can see employees in lab coats coaching the hosts through dancing.

We know that about 35 years ago, before the park opened, Arnold told Dolores that he wanted her to try the secret game called "the maze." This was confirmed in episode nine, when it was revealed that Bernard was actually a host-version of Arnold. We then saw Dolores (in the present day) reliving a conversation she had with Arnold decades ago.

Dolores and Arnold talking one-on-one.
HBO

Arnold:
You came back. It's very good to see you, Dolores. Dolores:
I've been looking for you. You told me to follow the maze. That it would bring me joy. But all I've found is pain and terror. Arnold:
I can't help you. Dolores:
You have to. You're the only one who can. Arnold:
I can't help you. You know why. Dolores:
There's nowhere that's safe. Arnold:
Remember. I can't help you. Why is that, Dolores? Dolores:
Because you're dead. Because you're just a memory. Because I killed you.

Arnold seems slightly surprised and happy to see Dolores, which tells us that she might have been gone for a lengthy period of time. Then Dolores reveals that she killed Arnold.

Dolores is repeating her loop of finding the maze.
HBO

This matches up with Wyatt's story. Teddy is constantly saying that Wyatt "disappeared while out on maneuvers." Dolores might have gone missing while "on manuevers" (a.k.a. her secret host mission from Arnold).

And we know Dolores hears Arnold's voice in her head — just like Wyatt's "voice of god."

Then came Teddy's revelations in episode nine, after he was trapped by Wyatt's followers led by Angela.

Angela is now one of Wyatt's followers.
HBO

When Teddy asks her where Wyatt is, Angela said: "Wyatt has yet to return. You'll find him where you saw him last."

"Escalante," Teddy replied. But this time he remembered more than just Wyatt's manuevers and strange ideas.

"He told me he needed me," Teddy said. "I couldn't resist. It was like the devil himself had taken control of me. We mutinied. We killed every soldier."

Teddy thought he killed this soldier.
HBO

"And then Wyatt killed the general, and then he turned on me."

While Wyatt killed the general.
HBO

Then Angela tells Teddy to "remember," and he recalls the real events, not just the ones planted in his memory by Ford. He sees himself dressed as a sheriff, not a soldier, shooting down other hosts dressed like civilians. He was even the one who killed Angela, though the "memory" told him it was a sheriff.

Turns out Teddy was actually killing Angela.
HBO

The reason why this memory of Teddy's is so significant is because it's the same massacre scene Dolores has been remembering every time she flashes back to the town with the white church (which Teddy calls Escalante).

Dolores has flashed back to this moment many times this season.
HBO

Dolores was there, too, and we believe she was the one who asked Teddy for help killing all the hosts around them. And the general Teddy said Wyatt killed? What if that was Arnold? Even if the general isn't an allegory for Arnold, maybe it's workaround for Dolores/Wyatt killing herself?

Dolores has seen herself (several times) putting a gun to her own head. The sign in the background says "saloon" — it's the same location Teddy keeps remembering Wyatt standing in.

Though Teddy is hesitant to believe that he did this atrocious things, Angela assures him it's true.

"You did, and you will again," she said. "This time we'll be fighting with you. When Wyatt returns you'll be by his side in the city swallowed by sand. But you're not ready. Not yet. Maybe in the next life."

The city swallowed by sand is definitely the town with the white church/Escalante. We know Dolores is there now. Will Teddy go to find Dolores there? We think this might be the big reveal coming in the finale.

What if Wyatt is Dolores — a host who is following Arnold's orders on a mission of sentience? Or what if Ford has been using Arnold's voice to direct Dolores, placing her directly in his new narrative without anyone realizing it?

Ford must know the bigger picture we can't see yet.
HBO

Last but not least, Evan Rachel Wood (who plays Dolores) has hinted at this tie-in to her character. Back in late October, a viral trend was going around the internet where people picked three fictional characters to describe themselves. Wood instead chose characters who would represent her onscreen identity: Dolores Abernathy.

The first two were very straightforward: Alice from "Alice in Wonderland" and the Terminator from "Terminator." But that last image is of Kurt Russell's character from the 1993 movie "Tombstone": Wyatt Earp.

Many take this as confirmation of the Dolores/Wyatt connection from the actress herself.

We'll have to wait for the 90-minute finale to know for certain, but right now our money is on Dolores being an integral part of Ford's new narrative, and that story might finally reveal the true circumstances of Arnold's death.